


And Everything In Between

by fanshae



Series: And Everything In Between [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Coming Out, Feminization, Friends to Lovers, High School AU, Louis beats someone up but not on screen, M/M, a bit of kissing, a little bit of larry but mostly about Harry becoming comfortable with his identity, and it's not Harry, genderfluid!harry, non-canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2016-01-24
Packaged: 2018-05-16 01:29:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5808034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanshae/pseuds/fanshae
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first day Harry wears a skirt to school Louis gets in two fist fights and has to borrow Harry's concealer for his busted knuckles. It was more than worth the dention but Louis lets Harry brush his lips over the scraped skin anyway.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And Everything In Between

“Sorry, what?” Louis asked.

 

Harry huffed what sounded like a strangled laugh from behind his own knees, tucked close to his chest. He looked small, and a bit like he’d bolt if he wasn’t keeping himself folded up on Louis’ bed. 

 

“Genderfluid, Lou, I’m- sometimes I feel like a boy, and sometimes I feel like a girl, and sometimes I feel a bit like… neither. I mean, I’m still a boy, but I’m not just a boy?” His voice lilted up, almost like he was asking Louis. “I don’t get it myself sometimes, it’s a bit shit, honestly,” Harry admitted softly.

 

“Oh,” Louis chewed on his hangnail, processing. “This isn’t a sex thing, is it Harold? Because you know I wouldn’t judge y-”

 

“No, oh my god!” Harry groaned, hiding his red face and the beginnings of a smile behind his hands.

 

Despite his mortification, he still went easily when Louis climbed off the chair he’d been perched on and crawled onto the bed, pulling Harry in close with an arm around his shoulders. 

 

“Love you just the same, Hazza, no matter what your knickers look like.”

 

Harry smothered a laugh against Louis’ shoulder and curled into Louis more tightly.

 

“Always be me best boy, even when you’re not,” Louis whispered, his sincerity too fragile to say anywhere but into Harry’s curls.

 

The tension in Harry’s body melted away, leaving him boneless with relief. If Louis’ shirt ended up a bit damp where Harry’s face was pressed, that was just fine with Louis.

 

* * *

  
  


Harry’s dragged Louis from one shop that smelled too strongly of incense and played indie records too loudly to another and if it had been anyone but Harry, Louis would’ve dug his feet in at the door. The fact that it was Harry means that Louis was inside but the headache that had begun to form made him think that it might not be for much longer.

 

Oblivious to Louis’ steadily worsening mood, Harry had been wandering the store for what felt like forever, circling back to a display of scarves near the front and taking the time to run his fingers over a deep blue scarf shot through with gold. By the third time Harry walked past the scarf with a wistful expression he usually saved for other people’s babies and the dog next door, Louis was ready to buy the scarf himself.

 

“If you want it, get it,” Louis snaps, impatient. He’s been ready to leave since they got there.

 

“You don’t think it’s too…” Harry trailed off, swallowing thickly, “...girly?”

 

The throbbing behind Louis’ temples burst into a full blown headache.

 

“Hazza, you are a girl. Like, at least part of the time, you are literally a girl and you’re worried about a scarf being too girly.” 

 

Harry bit his lip, still looking unsure. Louis softened and snagged the scarf from the rack before draping it around Harry’s neck.

 

“If you want it, get it.” He repeated, giving Harry a nudge towards the till. 

 

He insists that Harry wait till they’re outside to put it on since the incense really is hurting his head at this point. It’s almost worth the headache once Harry’s got the blue and gold twined through his curls in a ridiculous headband that Louis won’t admit has his stomach swooping. 

 

“Well?” Harry bit his lip, almost shy.

 

“You look like a proper flower child now, Haz,” Louis teased, reaching out to tuck a wayward curl behind Harry’s ear before leaning close, “it’s lovely.”

 

Harry’s blush was almost eclipsed by the smile that stretched from ear to ear, his dimples like moon craters.

 

* * *

  
  


“So, do you want to be called something different? On your girl days I mean,” Louis asked as he applied nail polish to Harry’s pinky.

 

He’d caught Harry hiding hot pink chipped nails under the over long sweaters of a jumper earlier this week. Louis hadn’t mentioned it except to leave a mostly full bottle of Chile Pepper Red ™ on Harry’s desk the next time he’d been along with a comment about how, “Red’s really more your color, don’t you think?”

 

Harry had only cried a little bit and Louis had politely pretended not to notice. 

 

That didn’t really explain how they’d ended up here with Louis painting Harry’s nails instead of playing FIFA like they’d planned but Harry was a bit of a klutz, Harry’s mum was a big fan of unstained carpets, and Louis had four younger sisters.

 

Harry stopped blowing on the hand Louis had already painted and frowned, “No, I’m still, you know, Harry. But maybe on my girly days, you could, um, tell me I’m pretty, and stuff.”

 

Harry was more and more comfortable in his skin these days, proudly wearing his growing collection of scarves in hair that was steadily creeping past his shoulders. He’d taken to wearing boots with a bit of a heel and smudging lip gloss along his lips only to lick it right off a minute later because, “You know cherry is my favorite, Lou, I can’t help it. Dunno how other girls do it, honestly.” 

 

That didn’t mean that he didn’t have bambi legged days where every step was unsure, or mornings where he spent too long in his closet only to curl up in a pile of discarded clothes, none of which felt quite right.

 

“You’re the prettiest girl at the ball, Hazza” Louis chirped, maybe a bit more sincerely than sarcastically but if Harry didn’t ask, Louis would never tell.

 

“You’re such a twat,” Harry said, delighted even as he shoved Louis off the couch unrepentantly.

 

The resulting tussle ended up with Harry tickled breathless, Louis shoved half under the couch with a stomach sore from laughter, and the carpet as an unforeseen casualty. 

 

Chile Pepper Red ™ may have been Harry’s color but it definitely wasn’t the carpet’s.

 

* * *

 

  
  


The steam from the bath was making the strands of hair that had escaped Harry’s bun curl along the back of his neck. The fact that Harry’s hair was long enough to put in a bun at all was something Louis was still getting used to. Some days Louis wanted to hide Harry’s exposed neck, maybe with his face or his lips. Louis had decided this urge was completely rational and had chosen not to examine it further.

 

Louis had also chosen not to examine why he was here, supposedly for moral support, sitting on Harry’s bathroom floor while Harry contorted himself into increasingly interesting positions in order to shave his legs with an old razor of Gemma’s he’d found in the back of the bathroom cupboard.

 

“Remind me why you’re doing this again, Haz?” Louis asked as Harry swished the razor in the water in frustration. Harry may not have been very hairy in the first place but apparently he was just hirsute enough to give the razor a run for its money.

 

“Dunno. Wanted to. It’s kind of a right of passage, innit?” Harry’s tongue was poking out of the corner of his mouth as he paid special attention to his knee.

 

“Is that what Cosmo told you?” Louis asked, reaching into the tub to flick water at his friend.

 

“Shut up, Lou, ‘m concentrating.”

 

“Maybe if you needed to shave your face more often, you wouldn’t be having such a hard time with your legs,” Louis said, not meaning a word of it, but teasing anyway, just to watch Harry stick his tongue out at Louis petulantly.

 

It was weird to watch Harry gradually expose the softness of his legs, weirdly intimate in a way that made Louis’ face hot. He turned away when Harry started on his thighs and pretended it was because he was bored.

 

Louis had never found anything less boring.

 

Harry’s legs were a bit harder to ignore when they were shoved right under his nose.

 

“Feel!” Harry’s delight was an almost palpable thing as he contorted himself to dangle his legs out of the tub. 

 

Louis swallowed thickly as he wrapped his fingers around a delicate ankle bone, “Not bad for a first try, Haz. Practice makes perfect and all that.”

 

Harry scowled and half heartedly threw a bottle of shampoo at Louis.

 

“Out! See if I ask for your opinion again,” Harry grumbled, shooing Louis with a hand gesture.

 

Louis pressed a reckless kiss to Harry’s shin before beating a hasty retreat, firmly stopping himself from wondering if Harry was flushed from the kiss or the steam.

 

* * *

 

  
  


Harry wears a skirt to school the next day because, “It’d be a shame to waste these legs, Louis, don’t be a fuddy duddy.” 

 

Later, Louis pretends not to notice the way Harry’s hands shake as he smooths the skirt down over his thighs before they walk in together, Louis’ fists clenched tight and Harry’s head held high, so brave, Louis’ best boy even when he’s not.

 

Louis gets in two fights that day.

 

The first with a prick who thinks that Harry’s skirt means that he sucks dick like he’s getting paid for it and has no problem voicing his opinion. Words that Louis’ only seen on bathroom stall doors get thrown around that leave Louis’ ears roaring hot with anger.

 

The second is with a prick who wants Harry to suck his dick and doesn’t stop at voicing his opinion, reaching over in the hallway to try and slide in a grope that made Louis’ stomach drop with something too close to possessiveness to look at comfortably .

 

He ended up borrowing Harry's concealer for his busted knuckles. It was more than worth the detention but Louis lets Harry brush his lips over the scraped skin anyway. 

 

“You shouldn’t have done that, Lou.” 

 

“He shouldn’t’ve touched you,” Louis insists, surly and nursing a sore hand that Harry still has clasped tightly in both of his.

 

Harry sighs and looks up at Louis through mascaraed lashes that have been driving Louis more than a bit mad all day. 

 

“It wasn’t that importa-”

 

“Shut up, Hazza, honestly, you’re important, you’re so important, I just,” Louis huffed, hot flash of something still coiled in his stomach as he reached up with the hand Harry didn’t have a hold of to reel his flower child in closer by the back of his neck. 

 

“I’m going to kiss you now,” Louis whispered, close enough to brush his nose against Harry’s, close enough to feel it when Harry nodded.

 

“Yes,  _ please _ Lou-”

 

Harry tastes like the cheap cherry lip gloss Louis has been wanting to lick off him since Harry started wearing it. He decides that the sweet sounds Harry sighs into his mouth were worth the wait.

 

* * *

 

It’s near dusk and Louis is laid out flat next to Harry in the grass behind Louis’ house. He realizes that Harry is close enough that if he moved an inch to the right he could hook his pinky through Harry’s. Louis moves an inch to the right because he kissed Harry and Harry kissed him right back and he’s allowed to hold Harry’s hand as much as he wants to now.

 

Louis tries to keep his heart from beating right out of his chest as he curls his pinky around Harry’s and Harry squeezes back.

 

“Were you surprised?”

 

Louis turns his head to study Harry’s profile, the headband holding back his riot of curls, the sunburn in the apples of his cheeks, and the wrinkle between his eyebrows that means he’s thinking too hard.

 

“About what?”

 

Harry turns to meet Louis’ stare with one of his own.

 

“About me, about… everything, I guess.”

 

The light from the street is quickly becoming the only source of light as the sun sets, illuminating Harry’s curls into a riotous halo that Louis finds appropriate.

 

“You’ve always been so, so much, Hazza. Like, you just spill over at the edges sometimes because you have so much to give,” Louis whispers, “I always knew you were special, was just waiting for you to tell me how.” 

 

“Yeah?” Harry asks his eyes bright in the twilight of his backyard. Louis wants to hold his hand forever. 

 

“Yeah,” Louis promises, squeezing Harry’s pinky with his own so he knows it’s true. 

 

If Louis leans over and kisses Harry breathless into the grass, there’s only the stars to see it.

 

Afterall, Harry is Louis’ best boy, even when he’s not.

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to my sister for encouraging me to finally finish something and post it. She's the best beta I could ask for, her blog is [hogwartsbaby](http://hogwartsbaby.tumblr.com/) on tumblr. 
> 
> Let me know what you thought! You can also find my blog [here](http://mygardenabounds.tumblr.com/)


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